friends/family input into your parenting

Hah...of couse i am here as well!

I got a couple (as in three) itti bittis to try out as i am keen to go cloth as much as possible.

My dear mother, who no doubt is scarred from her years with the big white squares that required soaking, bleaching, hanging, folding etc is horrified that i would shun the mighty convenience of the disposable.

Comments have ranged from plain "its not going to work" to "don't think you're putting some pooey nappy in my washing maschine" and "one wear and it'll be stained and ruined" OH, and "You'll have to soak it for a couple of days to get it clean again, and the bleach will ruin the fabric"

I darent tell her that they don't need soaking at all.

I also caught her trying to take one apart when i wasnt looking, probably trying to see how it unfolds

Aww, thats gorgeous of your dad, love a good bit of support from the sidelines

We almost need a third thread: Genius Advice from our Mothers. Bless them, i'm sure there are some excellent old fashioned techniques they use that arent insane.

Back on topic though, my cousin has a three month baby who has well mastered the art of rolling over, and over, and over even though she's young to do it. Her MIL refuses to believe such a young baby can roll and leaves her on the couch all the time alone because its IMPOSSIBLE for a three month old to be quite capable of rolling off.

Eeek Azza! How, errrr, *helpful* of her!

Love that comment by your dad Stefany!

My sister, who has a dream baby that is fat and happy and sleeps, is full of useless advice for how to get DD to sleep better. Honestly, if the basic stuff she suggested worked, DD would have been sleeping through months ago!!

That said, at least they care. I find it pretty disheartening how completely disinterested my inlaws are in DD

Hrmmmmm my toddler is always on the couch

I could be here all day about things my MIL says
-DD shouldnt be in a bed before 2.5yrs
-I should let dd scream when its nap time
-She should be on a 4 hr routine as a baby(this women has no idea about BFing)
-She should be in bed by 630pm everynight
- why bother with rear facing, mil never did why should i
- baths should be in the morning
- i offer her to much variety of food
- we leave the house far to much
- she is spoilt and we buy her too much
Really it just goes on & on.

My parents however are sweet, never said one thing to be about how i raise DD.

Edited by _SMS_

Hmmmmm... thankfully nothing too much yet from my family or friends though it is starting with the rolled eyes and grimaces everytime I mention Baby-led weaning to my mother (I'm interested in learning about BLW and doing that or in combo with purees, but, well, Mum thinks I'm a little to even think about it).

Oh yeah, and my brother did poo-poo me getting a Radian carseat so Josh would be rear-facing for longer, telling me that he'll complain and want to forward-face sooner so it'll be a waste (or something to that effect)

The one that really irritated me though was while preggy still I mentioned to some ladies I work with (who are older and already have kids) that I was planning on not using any pain-relief during labour if I could at all avoid it. They promptly told me that was silly of me, and 'just you wait, you'll be begging for everything going'... I'm proud to say I got through an induced labour with only accupressure and gas towards the end (so there! you know-it-alls)

Angie - I had similar and it is nice to go back and tell people that you didn't need any drugs!

I haven't thankfully had anyone say anything about the way I do things. But I don't have any really old relatives around anymore so that is prob why!

Mum thought it was odd I wanted to use cloth until she saw what they looked like.

My Mum tells me how I shouldn't waste my money on expensive things for DD (like a decent pram) and then told me she didn't like the buckle on the one that we got instead

[QUOTE=AngieBabe] Hmmmmm... thankfully nothing too much yet from my family or friends though it is starting with the rolled eyes and grimaces everytime I mention Baby-led weaning to my mother (I'm interested in learning about BLW and doing that or in combo with purees, but, well, Mum thinks I'm a little to even think about it).QUOTE]

Oh, SNAP!! I am at least interested to learn about it though i'm obviously a long way away from doing it and had a book on it lying around, Mom is horrified and lectured me on the apple and liver purees i used to live on as a child.

Why arent children allowed on couches? Is she an animal?! Like someone said, i understand if it was their italian leather sofa and she was sticky or something but your couch at home...?!

I have a friend tell me every time i see her i'm stupid for wanting a natural birth and that the risks and side effects are a possibility but the pain is a definate so i should take the probable risk to avoid the definate. Course she's not pregnant, never has been so its almost worse! Shut up until you've done it, lady!


Edited by bowie

Yeah I had piles of people tell me that there was no way I would be able to have a drug free birth and that'd I'd be begging for pain relief. It was more than a little satisfying to go back later and tell them that I had done what I had wanted, and had a big baby too (4.7kg) - so it isn't impossible!

My mother kept undoing Alex's swaddle when he was a newborn because she thought it was mean to strap him down like that. Once I figured out what was going on I told her if she did it again I'd break her fingers. Not really but I wanted to.

Someone at my work told me that I was a martyr for still breastfeeding when Alex was 10 months old. I was expressing at work 2x per day because my husband was at home but since I hadn't actually said anything to her (she'd just seen me coming out of the parents room with the pump) I thought that was really off.

And finally (wow, I'm a grump!), when I offered to send someone who was having twins a whole lot of information on cloth nappies if she was interested I had to put up with a load of people going on about how cloth isn't environmentally friendly and it's so difficult and so messy and blah blah blah. None of these people had used cloth nappies. I wasn't criticising their choice to use disposables, why did they feel like they had to go off about cloth??

two of our friends had wee boys in may,
one lot of parents went out and brought a complete birth to TT set of itti's and is planning to BF to 2yrs old.
the other stocked up on disposibles and didnt produce any milk so couldnt BF.

other friends who have never had babies (and claim they dont ever want them) was bitching to them about how cloth nappies are stupid and a waste of money as who spends $800 on nappies in one go, and why BF that long they only need it till they start on solids. she then was moaning to the other one about how she is a bad mum for not trying to BF and for giving him formula.


we were discussing it and i said i when we have kids we will BF until 2, use cloth naps adn extended rear face. she had opinions on all them too.

and to top it off our other friend found out they were preg after 6months trying and she had the balls to tell them 'dont get too attached you might loose it still'